Kids celebrate Earth Day through stories, clay

New Delhi, April 22 (IANS) Children listened intently to an interactive story-telling session based on the environment and thoroughly enjoyed a clay-modelling exercise held here on Earth Day Tuesday. Organised by publishing house Katha, the event saw around 80 children being entertained and being encouraged to do their bit to save the environment.

In keeping with its belief of imparting knowledge through story-telling, Katha engaged educationist and story-teller Nupur Awasthi to read out from Geeta Dharmarajan’s book “Earthsong”, which has tales and trivia on the environment.

The children who attended the event, held at the Katha premises in Sarvodaya Enclave in south Delhi, were 7 to 10 years old and belonged to several leading schools of the capital.

“A story opens the eyes and ears of the children. Story-telling is the best way to inform and educate young children,” Awasthi told IANS.

Said Amrita Talwar of Katha: “Children have forgotten the smell of earth. They have become very used to their synthetic environment, potted plants and concrete.”

After the story-telling session, each child was handed over a World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)Passport, certifying him/her as a “citizen of the environment”.

The children were later asked to pen down their resolutions to preserve ‘mother earth’.

They also displayed their creativity by moulding clay characters out of the book. They created ladybirds, turtles, tigers, birds and many endangered species.